NORWAY DESK OFFICER VISITS OSLO

UNCLAS OSLO 000352

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STATE FOR EUR/NB DALLAND

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL ENGR RU NO
SUBJECT: NORWAY DESK OFFICER VISITS OSLO


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On March 9 and 10, Norwegian desk
officer Ray Dalland visited Oslo and held meetings with
officials at the Norwegian Ministries of Defense and
Foreign Affairs. Lack of significant progress in
Norway's border delineation dispute with Russia in the
High North, and the impact on future oil and gas
production on the area, were points of discussion.
Norway's future role in NATO and UN peacekeeping
operations, including possible deployment in Darfur
were topics in meetings at the Ministry of Defense.
END SUMMARY

MoD: Mil-Mil Coordination, Darfur, and Russian border
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2. (SBU) On March 9, Dalland, along with DAO Stevens
and ConOff, met with Henning Vaglum, Head of Section,
and Geir Myrseth, Commander (Senior Grade),both of the
Transatlantic and European Security and Defense Policy
section of the Ministry of Defense. While Vaglum
stressed the importance of maintaining close
cooperation and high visibility with Washington on
defense matters, he also cautioned that there was so
much cooperation on so many levels that overlap was
beginning to become a problem. Both sides should
ensure that appropriate work was being done by the
appropriate working group. Vaglum also mentioned that
Norway was considering deployment of 150 troops to
Darfur, but that it had not been decided by the Cabinet
and that once agreed to such a deployment would take
nine months to implement.


3. (SBU) Ministry of Defense officials also discussed
security concerns at High North oil and gas facilities
and the lack of significant progress in long-running
Barents Sea delineation discussions. Vaglum mentioned
that NATO had in the past agreed, in principle, to
provide security for oil and gas facilities in the High
North should it be necessary. Turning to the Russia -
Norway Barents border discussions, Vaglum reported that
Norwegian meetings with Russian FM Lavrov resulted in
no substantive progress in the current territorial
dispute and that it "seemed the Russians weren't
interested in cooperating" on energy and trade matters.

MFA: Bi-lateral High North Talks, Fisheries, and Oil
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4. (SBU) On March 10, Dalland, PolOff and ConOff met
with Sverre Jervell, Senior Advisor for Northern Areas,
Polar Affairs and Nuclear Safety. The only topic
discussed was the High North. Jervell (who had been
working the High North issue since the term was coined
during the Cold War) told Dalland that he felt
Washington's High North knowledge was "obsolete" and
too focused in the Pentagon and at the War College.
When asked about the status of a proposed spring
conference in Washington on the High North, Jervell
replied that while things were still at the formative
stage, his concept was to pull together experts from
legal, political, economic, environment, industrial and
military fields in the State Department to meet with
Norwegian counterparts to address specific High North
issues. He said that the issue of security in the High
North, from the Cold War days, had turned to one of
oil, economics and environment, this last point being
critical to internal Norwegian politics.


5. (SBU) Regarding disputes with Russia over fisheries
rights and Barents Sea boundaries, Jervell (protect)
commented that current discussions were really all
about oil. He, too, felt the Russians were not
interested in resolving the matter any time soon. The
longer the situation played out, the more it was to the
Russians' advantage. Jervell said that to reach a
solution on fisheries access and border delineation it
was important to coordinate with the U.S. He feels
coordination would not only benefit the U.S
economically, but would help Norway to better counter
Russia's might. He reiterated that the boundary issue
is key: "During the Cold War, there was only one issue,
and the U.S. took care of it. Now, Norway is in the
middle and we are not used to this game."

WHITNEY